Speech by Dr Donald Markwell,
Warden of Rhodes House, Oxford,
at the Dinner of the Oxford European Reunion,
Berlin, Saturday 7 November 2009
We are here in Berlin to mark the 20th anniversary of the coming down of the
Berlin Wall, contributing to the end of the cold war and the reunion of a
divided city, country, and continent – one of the great transformations of the
20th century. In celebrating that reunification, tonight’s Oxford alumni
reunion also marks the long-lived bonds between this city, this country, and
this continent with Oxford. I would like to talk briefly about some aspects of
those links that go back long before 1989.
One of the many important elements of the Oxford-German bond has been
for over a century and remains the German Rhodes Scholarships, which
remind us that the links between Oxford and Germany have spanned many
generations and have been of profound importance.
Cecil Rhodes, who died in 1902, through his will and codicils created
scholarships to bring outstanding all-rounders from the United States, many
countries of the British Empire as it was, now the Commonwealth, and
Germany – people of intellect, character, leadership, and commitment to
service – to Oxford to gain the benefits of collegiate education there, and to
be encouraged to promote the public good.
The codicil to Rhodes’s will that created the German scholarships was very
short. It was signed in January 1901:
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… I note the German Emperor has made instruction in English
compulsory in German schools
I leave five yearly scholarships at
Oxford of £250 per ann. to students of German birth the scholars to be
nominated by the German Emperor for the time being … The object is
that an understanding between the three great powers will render war
impossible and educational relations make the strongest tie.
C. J. Rhodes
Since the first German Rhodes Scholars arrived in Oxford in 1903, twice
interrupted by war and twice renewed, German Rhodes Scholars, like other
German Oxonians, have contributed much to Oxford, to Germany, and to the
wider world.
This year, as well as being the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall,
is a special anniversary for two German Oxonians who came to Oxford as
Rhodes Scholars, two people about whom ‘it is difficult to speak, and
impossible to be silent’.

2009 is the centenary of the birth of Adam von Trott zu Solz, who came to
Oxford briefly in 1929 to Mansfield, and back to Oxford, to Balliol, in 1931
as a Rhodes Scholar.

2009 is also the centenary of the selection as a Rhodes Scholar and the
coming to Oxford, to Trinity, of Albrecht Bernstorff.
Both Adam von Trott and Albrecht Bernstorff were executed in this city in
1944 and 1945, respectively, for their roles in the resistance to Hitler and
assassination efforts against him.
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Both their names, together with the names of the Rhodes Scholars from
Germany and all other countries who were killed in the world wars, are
inscribed in Oxford in the rotunda at Rhodes House, where this week, which
includes Remembrance Sunday, there is a wreath of poppies in their
memory.
The links between Oxford and Germany are reflected in the lives, and the
deaths, of Albrecht Bernstorff and Adam von Trott. Count Bernstorff had
been at Oxford before the First World War. In 1926, after one of the many
Rhodes reunion dinners he attended in Oxford, he wrote to the first Warden
of Rhodes House, Sir Francis Wylie:
I feel that I owe you a word of thanks on behalf of Mandt [his fellow
German Rhodes Scholar] and myself to tell you how very happy we
were to be able to attend the Dinner at Oxford again this year. For me
personally I must say that it has greatly impressed me to be in touch
again with the great and growing community of the Rhodes Trustees
and the Rhodes Scholars after all the unfortunate events that have
separated us during the years of the war and after. Mandt and I, and I
feel sure that a very large section of the former German Rhodes
Scholars will agree with us, greatly appreciate [the welcome we
received] …, and for me personally I can only say that I shall more
than ever try to live up to the ideas which prompted Cecil Rhodes in
making his will.
Bernstorff, who was an outspoken liberal, sat on the Rhodes selection
committee that chose Adam von Trott as one of the German Rhodes Scholars
for 1931. The stepson of another of the 1931 German Rhodes Scholars is
here tonight – Thomas Böcking, the German National Secretary of the
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Rhodes Trust, and his wife, Silvia Böcking. We are enormously grateful for
their outstanding contribution for over 30 years to the ties between Germany
and Oxford, principally, but not only, through the Rhodes Scholarships.
Adam von Trott was at Balliol from 1931 to 1933. In November 1938, he
wrote to the Warden of Rhodes House, C. K. Allen, from a trip that took him
to the US and China:
I wonder how Rhodes matters have been running in these turbulent
times. The bad boys haven’t written me a word about it from Berlin.
But this voyage and the sanity and vigour which I have found in the
bond to former Rhodes Scholars in so many places all over the globe
has increased rather than diminished my interest even in the Berlin
end of it. I think our institution should contribute something to the
very problem which is facing our two countries now. Sorry to get
rhetorical – but, don’t you agree?
Adam von Trott took part in the July 1944 assassination attempt against
Hitler and was hanged in this city in August 1944, at the age of 35.
Just over a week ago, Mansfield College, where he had first been in Oxford,
hosted the fourth Adam von Trott Memorial Lecture, and announced a new
scholarship, for which they continue to seek funding, for a German student
to study politics or international relations in Oxford at Mansfield College. For
further information about the Adam von Trott Memorial Fund, please contact
the Development Office at Mansfield College.
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In September 1946, just over two years after his death, Adam von Trott’s
widow, Clarita von Trott, saw the Warden of Rhodes House and later wrote to
him:
I do want to tell you once more how grateful I was for the afternoon
with you and that I could talk so freely with you about Adam and his
and our fight and life. And it is wonderful to know that – if ever again
in England – I could come to your house and find out many more
details about Adam’s life in Oxford – the time of his life which has
determined the course of his later years.
Although mercifully in less dramatic ways, for many of us our years in Oxford
have been ‘the time of [our] life which has determined the course of [our]
later years’.
As we remember the 20th anniversary of the breaching of the Berlin Wall, let
us also remember German and other Oxonians of all the generations whose
lives have been touched by Oxford, and who have contributed to Oxford and
the wider world.
And let us recall also the noble, if incompletely realistic, vision of Cecil
Rhodes that understanding between the great powers should render war
impossible, and that educational relations make the strongest tie.
In celebrating the 20th anniversary of the breaching of the Berlin Wall, let us
also celebrate those educational ties between Oxford, Germany, and the
wider Europe, which go back so far and which mean so much for the future.
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